In the year of grace 1181, being the twenty-seventh year of the reign of king Henry, son of the empress Matilda, the said king was at Le Mans, on the day of the Nativity of our Lord. After this festival, he enacted throughout all his territories, beyond sea, that every man who had a hundred pounds of money Anjouin, in chattel property, should keep a horse and a complete set of military accoutrements; that every man who had chattel property to the amount of forty, thirty, or twenty-five pounds Anjouin, at the least should have a hauberk, an iron head-piece, a lance and a sword; while all other persons were to have a gambeson,1 an iron head-piece, a lance and a sword, or a bow and arrows; and he forbade any person to sell or pledge his arms; but on his death he was to leave the same to his next heir. When Philip, king of France, and Philip, earl of Flanders, came to hear of this, they ordered that their men should arm themselves in a similar manner.

In the same year, after the Purification of Saint Mary, Laurence, archbishop of Dublin, came into Normandy, bringing with him the son of Roderic, king of Connaught, and delivered him to the king of England as a hostage for the performance of the treaty made between him and the king of Connaught, as to the payment of tribute by Ireland; shortly after which the said archbishop of Dublin died at Auc, in Normandy, and was buried there. After his decease, the king of England sent to Ireland

1 The gambeson, or wambais, or subarmale, was made of quilted stuff, and formed the body armour of the burgesses.